The Roommate Dematerialization
by Tensor
Summary: Leonard and Penny want to move out, Sheldon, of course, objects. Mostly Lenny, with some Sheldon and Amy, and the rest of the gang in a later chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey, I'm back. I finished writing this one before publishing, so it won't be hanging. If you see this, *****TRD*****, there has been a change in days.**

 **The Roommate Dematerialization.**

 **Chapter 1**

"Sheldon, come on," said Amy with a touch of annoyance. "I'm already going to be late, because you didn't plan for this morning. I'm not going to be even later, so you can yell at Leonard for not driving you to work, when he plainly told you he was going to be on vacation. Let's go."

Sheldon turned to face Amy, his clenched hand ready to knock again. He looked back at the door, looked at Amy. Turning back to the door, he knocked three more times and spoke, "Leonard and Penny. There, at least I got to complete it." He turned toward Amy.

"Why didn't you tell me this weekend," she asked, "you were going to need a ride?"

"Leonard said he was going to be on vacation this week, he didn't say anything about not taking me to work."

Amy shook her head, "I would think that was implied. What made you think he would still drive you?"

"Well," stared Sheldon, "there's there roommate agree…."

"Sheldon," said Amy sharply, "you know the new agreement, the one you wrote up after Penny and Leonard agreed to stay in the apartment longer, doesn't have the stipulation that he drive you every day."

"But…"

"You should have let me know on Friday, when he told you," Amy said with exasperation. "Or, failing that, you could have told me on either Saturday or Sunday. Calling me on Monday morning was unacceptable…you're lucky I love you and am willing to overlook this."

"But…"

"Come on Sheldon," said Amy. "I have to get to work, I have that meeting."

"But…"

Amy spun and started down the stairs, "If you want a ride, you'll be there when I get to my car."

Sheldon gave up, and followed Amy down the stairs.

* * *

Penny and Leonard held their breath as they heard Sheldon walk off. They couldn't quite make out what Amy had said from their bedroom, but they could tell she didn't sound happy. It must have gotten Sheldon moving, as their voices became fainter, and they couldn't hear either of them now. They both exhaled, and looking at each other, smiled.

"Well, that was close, I didn't want to face him this morning," said Leonard.

"So, what are we doing today?" asked Penny.

Leonard thought about it for a few seconds, "We have to get the boxes, and start moving things over from across the hall. We have to start taking your stuff down, and I have to make a few calls, to set up the appointments on Thursday and Friday."

Penny knew what that meant, "Are you sure you want to go through all of this? We could just leave the stuff over there until we get our stuff figured out here."

"Do you see any other way?"

Penny thought about it for a few seconds, then shook her head.

"Well, then I guess we should get started," said Leonard as he began to get out of the bed.

"Hold on Mr Hofstadter, your wife needs you for a while," said Penny as she pulled him back into the bed, kissing him.

Leonard broke the kiss, "That's Dr Hofstadter, and my "while" may not be long enough for you"

Penny had an exasperated look on her face, "Shut up Leonard." She went back to kissing him.

* * *

"I told you I needed to stop and get some things from the store," said Sheldon.

"And I told you it could wait until tomorrow, you know I had a meeting this afternoon, you made me late for my meeting this morning. Remember, you brought this upon yourself, by waiting until this morning to tell me."

They reached the landing on the fourth floor, and looking over to 4B, saw the door was open. Instead of going into 4A, they walked over to what they thought of as Penny's apartment. Penny saw them through the door and said, "Hi Ames, what's up?"

"What are you doing?" asked Amy, looking at all the boxes and various things scattered across the living room.

"Errrrr… we're…a…we're boxing things up," Penny answered.

"Why?" asked Amy.

"Well…what I mean is …"

Leonard came walking out of the bedroom, carrying a box. "Leonard, sweety, can you explain to them what were doing?" said Penny.

Leonard looked up and saw Amy and Sheldon. "Yes, errr… well," Leonard said as he look around, "What we're doing is moving some of my things over here."

Sheldon look a bit upset. "Leonard, what do you mean?"

"I told you, I'm moving some of my collectables, books, whiteboard and other things over here."

"But why?" asked Sheldon. "Moving things makes no sense. You don't have the room over here for all of it."

"Sheldon," Leonard said, "if you remember, and I know you do, as of last night, we start staying over here five nights a week. Sunday night through Thursday, and on Friday and Saturday, we stay in 4A. You agreed to Penny and I increasing our nights here, one night per month, when you drew up the new Roommate agreement."

"You're still staying over there for a couple of nights, why would you move your things."

"Two reasons," started Leonard. "I'll be spending the majority of my time here with Penny, so I want the majority of my things here. Second, as you know from the roommate agreement, in another month, I move out of 4A completely. Remember, after five nights, we do the last two the next month. I'll be out of the apartment, and I'll have to have an idea of where everything will go by then. By moving things I want over here now, Penny and I can figure out what, of Penny's, has to be packed away and put in storage. And anything I keep over there, will be packed up and put in storage, when I move in over here."

"But why now?"

"I told you," said Leonard, shaking his head. "I want to figure it all out so when I'm finished moving in a month, everything will be set up where it needs to be here, and everything that is going to storage will be packed up. Amy?"

"Yes?" said Amy.

"Can you get run and get our dinner at that Thai place tonight?" asked Leonard.

"Sure, why?"

"We want to work some more on this," said Leonard. "Maybe clear another path, and if you run and get it, we can finish up what we wanted to get done for today."

Amy nodded her head, "If Penny will tell me what you two want, I'll call it in and go get it."

Sheldon interjected, "Unlike you Leonard, I can depend on Amy to get the orders correct from Szechuan Palace"

"I'm sure you can Sheldon, I'm sure you can," said Leonard rolling his eyes. "Now, let us get back to work." He turned and walked back into the bedroom.

Penny walked toward the kitchen, "Come here Amy, I'll get write it down for you."

****************************TRD**************************

Amy and Sheldon were walking up the stairs. As they rounded the third floor landing Amy said, "He said they were working on getting his things into Penny's apartment and getting the rest packed away. Not to mention Penny's things have to be packed away. How many times do we have to go over this with you."

Sheldon looked sad, then sighed, "You don't. It just seems what I told Leonard about not seeing him, is coming true. I haven't seen him since Monday, and he didn't come to the comic book store tonight."

Sheldon went to put his key in the lock, but realized the door was open. He carefully opened it, and saw Leonard measuring his desk.

"Leonard?" he asked in a questioning tone, "What are you doing?"

Leonard looked up, "Oh, hi Sheldon, hi Amy. I'm measuring my desk, so I know how much space I need."

"Are you moving your desk, also?"

"Yes Sheldon," Leonard said flatly, "I afraid I am."

But, …but…," Sheldon stuttered. You're taking everything out of here, you're going to move your desk, I suppose you'll take your bed over there too. Just empty everything."

"Not for another month, Sheldon," said Leonard, "I need my desk for my work."

"No, I see what you're doing now. I've seen your figurines missing." Sheldon's voice changed, "Why wait," he asked sarcastically, "why don't you just take everything else out now."

"Sheldon…," Amy spoke up.

"No, Amy," Sheldon's voice was rising, "this is just as bad when he and Penny told me he was moving out. They be gone and forget about me. Well, fine, if he want's to move out, the…"

"What's going on?" asked Penny as she stepped through the door, "Why is Sheldon yelling?"

"I'll tell you why I'm yelling," yelled Sheldon, "Things are changing, and it's all your fault."

Amy could see the anger beginning on Penny's face.

Sheldon continued, "For nine years, you've been changing Leonard. Now your married and want to move out. Have you thought about me? You know I don't like change. Well, I'll make it easier for you…"

"Sheldon, calm down," said Leonard.

"NO, I will not calm down," yelled Sheldon, "If you want to leave, leave. Don't wait for your precious month from now, go now." He turned and headed for his room.

"Sheldon…" said Amy, turning and following him.

Penny and Leonard looked at each other.

Leonard said, "Now do you think were doing the right thing?"

"Yes, c'mon, let's get out of here" said Penny tightly. "We'll finish up for today, and go get something to eat."

****************************TRD**************************

They were having tea, at the kitchen island. "No," said Sheldon continuing their argument, "I'm still angry with Leonard and Penny. I am not going to apologize, he said he was moving some of the stuff over to Penny's. But look at the wall, he's moved all of his things over to their apartment or to his bedroom. Go ahead, look at the wall."

Amy had to agree with him, the wall behind the couch was quite empty, " I don't have to look Sheldon, I saw it when we came in. You knew they were going to move out eventually. Why don't you just forget it, he's your best friend,"

"No, he's not, you are."

Amy stopped, unsure if she heard him correctly, "I am?"

"Yes," said Sheldon, "you and I have been spending more time together. We have better conversations than Leonard and I have had recently. You've been much more supportive than he has. I tell you more things about me personally now, than I tell him. I'm not happy about change, but you have replaced him as my best friend. And now, with him moving over there, I can't abide by it anymore."

"Thank you Sheldon," said Amy, with a large smile on her face, "you have been my best friend for a while."

Sheldon looked puzzled, "I thought Penny was your best friend."

"Well, now you are," said Amy, "and have been since we got back together, for many of the same reasons you stated."

A small smile spread across Sheldon's face, "Thank you."

"And, as your best friend," said Amy, "I'm telling you to you need to forget about it."

"Well, OK, if you insist…" he started.

"I am," said Amy seriously.

"But, I am going to remind them that it is Friday, and they are staying here tonight, per the roommate agreement."

Sheldon walked to the door, opened it and walked over to 4B. Amy heard Knock, knock, knock, "Leonard and Penny." Knock, knock, knock, "Leonard and Penny." Knock, knock, knock, "Leonard and Penny." Amy didn't hear anything for a few seconds and then Knock, knock, knock, "Leonard and Penny." Knock, knock, knock, "Leonard and Penny." Knock, knock, knock, "Leonard and Penny?"

A few seconds later, Sheldon came back through the door. "Amy, they're not answering."

"Maybe they're not home," said Amy.

"But, when I asked, he texted me that he would be home when I arrived home," said Sheldon.

"Then they aren't answering."

"I am not putting up with this, if they aren't answering then I'm going to make sure they know they have to be here tonight," he said reaching into the bowl by the door, "I've got the emergency key, they just can't not answer me."

"Sheldon, don't bother them."

"Amy, I'm willing to forget his moving his things over there," he said stiffly. "But I want I want to make sure they know they are staying here tonight. They are still bound by the roommate agreement. If they're not there, I'll leave them a note."

"Sheldon don't…"

Paying no attention to her, he walked out the door. Amy shook her head and started looking at the menu when she heard Sheldon with a touch of panic in his voice, call out, "Amy, come here, hurry".

Amy quickly got up and rushed out of the apartment. She stop just outside the door, upon seeing Sheldon, his face white. "What's wrong Sheldon," she said worriedly.

Sheldon's mouth moved up and down but nothing was coming out. He just pointed through the door. Finally a look of comprehension came over his face, "The bedroom," he said, running past Amy into 4A. Amy watched him go, then walked up to the door to 4B, pulled it fully open, and looked in. The entire apartment was empty.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **A/N I really mess up with the first author's note, I forgot to than hokie3457, Jenafan, and Zhalen565 for looking it over for errors and those other things I worry about. So, thanks to all three of you.**

Leonard was carrying another box to what would be his office when he felt his phone buzzing again. He put the box down, reached into his back pocket for his phone, and looked at the screen. He chuckled as he saw the name. Scrolling down, he counted, _11 messages, 9 voicemails, Sheldon much be in a panic_ he thought.

Leaving his office, he walked over to the kitchen. Penny was standing by the sink, looking out of the window at the mountains. He said, "We're never going to get this done if you keep looking out of the window, instead of unpacking."

Penny turned to look at him and smiled, "I know, but the view is so great. What's up?"

He grinned at her, "I got another message from Sheldon"

"How many does that make?"

Leonard said, "Eleven texts, nine voicemails."

"You got me beat," chuckled Penny as she took her phone out of her pocket, "I've only got eight texts and two voicemails from Amy."

"I got couple of texts and one voicemail, from Howard."

"I have four texts from Bernadette, and a couple of voicemails," said Penny, "I win there". Penny's smile turned serious. "Leonard?" Penny said questioningly.

"Yes?"

"Did we do the right thing?" Penny said.

"Yes, we did," Leonard said with conviction. He paused, putting his hand on her arm, "You know how things go with you and Sheldon. You caved in on the table, you caved in on moving out. At least this way…"

"No, no, you were right," Penny said. "Doing it the way we did was the only way we were going to get away from him, because he's like a brother to me and I feel sorry for him and don't want him sad, so I cave."

"Remember when I told you crazy looks like sad, so it will suck you back in?" ask Leonard.

"Yes, and like the table or moving, I caved to him, you caved to me," said Penny, with a stern look at Leonard. "So, yeah, I understand why we had to do it this way. What I meant was, did we do the right thing buying this house?"

Leonard rubbed her arm. "Of course we did. Do you remember what your 'guy' said."

Penny smiled, "He's OUR guy now."

Leonard was also grinning. "Yes, I know. But remember what Bob said when we asked? This will help us on our taxes, and with your income, we need something."

"But why four bedrooms?"

"You know why, we've talk about it," said Leonard patiently. "We'll each have our own office and it give us a guest room, we have an extra bed, probably yours, for that." Leonard appeared embarrassed, and looked down. "And, if we ever decide to have kids…"

Penny smiled, "Remember, when we talked about being more mature. Just because Bernadette is pregnant, doesn't mean I'm going to follow her any time soon."

He smiled thinking about the Harry Potter face they had drawn on Sheldon's face when he was passed out on the couch, "Yes, I suppose we ho have to mature a bit more. But, do you really want to wait? After all, you're old now, right Ma'am"

"Shut up."

Leonard chuckled, "We have plenty of time, we've only been married for six months. Howard and Bernadette waited for three years after they got married. Let's see, you're three years younger than Bernadette, so if we wait for three years, you'll still be the same age as her, when you have your first. And if we wait longer, so what?"

Penny looked thoughtful, "Yeah, OK, you're right." Then looked sideways at him, "First?"

"Well," Leonard said hurriedly, "if we want more than one. We'll have to talk about that, I supp…"

"I was playing with you," said Penny with a grin. "Someday, we'll have a use for those other bedrooms, besides as offices."

"Speaking of which," said Leonard, "except for our bedroom, and what I'll call the guest room, we need more furniture for the bedrooms"

Penny looked around. "Not just the bedrooms, the living room, dining room, family room. This is going to cost us Leonard."

"I know," he nodded. "We can add pieces here and there. A desk for you, more bookshelves for me, another couch, some tables, bookcases, and display cases for the living room, another TV. We don't need it right away, but well get them." He gave her a grin, "You get to decorate a whole house."

Penny's eyes lit up, on hearing that. "Oh, yeah, curtains, pictures, matching them with the furniture, getting some throw rugs. Oh this is going to be fun." Then she turned serious, "Will we be able to afford this? I mean we've got this huge mortgage now."

"Well, according to Bob, yes, we can," Leonard said. "Remember, we were paying $2200 for rent, between us. This is only $300 more. We only have one electric and water bill now, although you are helping to pay the cable and internet now. You want to set the password now, you know, something like Pennygetyourownwifi?"

He looked a Penny with a grin, who playfully stuck her tongue out at him. He continued, "Also, this was such a great deal on the house, because this was a foreclosure. We got this for $400,000 less than it's worth. So even though we had to take a bunch out of savings, the value of the house more than makes up for it."

"Yeah, I guess," said Penny. "It's just I'm not used to having all this money. When my boss started asking me questions about what I wanted to do with my drawing account, and I didn't have an answer, he suggested Bob. I struggled for so long and while I wanted to be able to spend some money. I also wanted make sure I never went back to feeling like that."

"Even though you had to give up on acting?" asked Leonard.

Penny looked thoughtful, "I sometimes regret giving up my acting dreams, but overall, I think things have worked out pretty well for me." She smiled at Leonard.

"I understand," said Leonard. "As for me and my money, yeah, except for my geeky stuff, and my student loans. I didn't really spend a lot of money either."

"I told you I can help pay them off."

"Yes," said Leonard, "but Bob said they are low interest, so we can just keep paying on them, and we both trust Bob, right?"

Penny nodded.

"Just remember, he recommended this," said Leonard. "so yeah, I think were good." They heard the tones from the phones at the same time, with both of them looking at their own.

"Another one from Sheldon," said Leonard.

"I got one from Amy," said Penny. "Don't you think we should tell them where were at?"

"I don't know," said Leonard, "I'm enjoying the quiet." His face became serious, as he thought about it, finally, he sighed, "I suppose we should let them know. I can imagine Sheldon is going nuts, and it's not fair to them. They do care about us, like we care about them." He thought for a few seconds more, "Why don't we do this, you text or call Amy and Bernadette and let her know were fine, that we will have them over tomorrow, and you'll give them the address tomorrow afternoon?"

Penny look puzzled, "Why then?"

"I don't want them to show up until were ready to talk to them."

Penny nodded, "That sounds good."

"You want to stop here, and go get some lunch?"

"Sure," said Penny, "let me get my purse."

Penny walked into the dining room, where her purse was on the table. _Man, my table looks so small in this area. But as Leonard said, we'll get some new furniture_. Grabbing her purse, she headed toward the front door. Leonard was pressing some numbers on the pad of their security system.

"Hey," said Leonard, "you want to learn how to do this? You're going to have to know how, if I'm not home."

Penny rolled her eyes, "OK, what do I do?"

"Whenever you leave," Leonard explained, pointing out each item, "you enter the code, then push the 'arm' button. Then you look at the display. If the words 'System Armed' appear in the display, and the green light is on, the security system is on. If the light is orange, and there is nothing on the display, it's off and you have to retry."

"Oh, I got this," said Penny. Pushing past Leonard, she entered four numbers, then hit 'arm'. The light stayed orange and nothing changed on the display.

Leonard grinned, "Did you enter the right number in?"

"Your birthday, right?" ask Penny. "All your codes are your birthday, right?"

Leonard looked at her over his glasses, and said softly, "Did you forget my birthday again?"

"No, I had it right, I know I did. I don't understand…"

Leonard chuckled, "Actually, since it's our code, I thought I'd make is something both of us could remember."

"You mean you didn't tell me the code and let me think I knew it?" said Penny indignantly.

"Well, you didn't ask," said Leonard with a grin.

"So, what's the code." she demanded

Leonard was still grinning, "Like I said, something we both could remember, it's 2311."

Penny smiled. "OK, I'll give you that one." She started toward the panel, but Leonard stopped her.

"If you are coming in," continued Leoanrd, "you enter the number, press the 'arm' button. If the light turns orange, and the display is blank, then the system is off. Just remember, you have 30 seconds to get out after you set it, otherwise, the alarm goes off and the security company calls the police. Same thing when you come back in. Thirty-seconds to enter the code and turn it off, before the alarm goes off and the security company calls the police. So, if you don't get it right the first time, you have to hurry to retry it."

Penny put in 2311, pushed the 'arm' button and a second later, the light turned green and the words 'System Armed' appeared on the display.

"Let's go," said Leonard, as they headed out the door, closing and locking it as they went.

************************************TRD*********************************

Returning from lunch, an hour later, they pulled back into their driveway. Driving back to the house, Leonard had seen various people at their mailboxes and realized the mail must have been delivered while they were gone.

Leonard said, "How about you drop the empty cups in our garbage, and I'll go check if we got mail?"

"Why would we have mail?"

Leonard explained, "I changed it over on Thursday. We should get some here, but we still have to check at the apartments for a couple of weeks, in case it get delivered over there."

"Ok, I'll meet you at the mailbox then."

Leonard headed down the driveway to the mailbox, which was just on the other side of the hedge separating their house from their neighbors . Penny walked to the garbage can, dropped the cups in and started walking toward the mailbox. Penny had gotten about half way to the mailbox when she heard a women say in a loud voice, "Leonard, oh my god."

Penny continued quickly down the driveway, and peered around the hedge. Her jaw dropped, seeing the woman hugging Leonard. Penny was getting ready to walk out, when they broke the hug. Seeing Leonard with a confused look on his face, Penny decided to watch and wait.

Leonard said, haltingly, "Er…how…er…have you been?"

"I've been great," the woman said, "I got married about five years ago."

"That's wonderful," said Leonard.

Penny almost laughed at the very obvious confusion on Leonard's face. Penny looked at the woman, Penny judged her to be very attractive about Penny's age, maybe a bit older, slim, not quite as slim as Penny, but close.

"How about you?" the woman asked. "I see you bought the Rennell's house. When did you move in here? It must have been recently, as the sign is still up. Did you get married?"

Leonard was trying to think of an answer, while he kept trying to remember where he knew this woman from. She looked and sounded familiar, but he couldn't place her. He said, "We got married about six months ago, we just moved in yesterday, but we closed on the house on Thursday. Er…who…ahhhh…so…ah, you've been married for five years?"

Penny was amused, but curious as to who this woman was. She could almost see the wheels turning in Leonard's head, trying to figure out who this was.

The woman said, "Yep, we even have two kids now."

"Really? I'm happy for you. So…what are you doing now?" Leonard said, hoping this woman would say something that would give him a clue to her identity.

Well, I'm at the San Gabriel Medical Center. I went there after I finished my resi…"

Penny was able to hold in her gasp when she heard Leonard say, "Stephanie?"

 **A/N I looked into prices for homes, and foreclosures, along with rents in Pasadena. The discussion of the payments that Lenny made for rent, along with the cost of their house are pretty realistic.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N This chapter is about 1500 words longer than the first two. Originally, it was about 800 words longer. My editing process tends to end up adding about 600-700 words.**

Chapter 3

"You look great," said Leonard. "I would have never recognized you."

"Yeah," said Stephanie, "I've lost about 40 pounds. I was a bit hefty when we were dating, and after my first kid, I thought it was better to lose some weight. You like it?" At the question, Penny thought her voice had a hint of sultry in it.

 _Well, that is enough of that. He's mine now lady,_ thought Penny. She put on a smile and walked out from the hedge and said, "Sweety, I thought, you…oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Er, this is my wife, Penny," said Leonard, suddenly looking nervous.

Stephanie said, "So nice to meet you…"

Leonard clear his throat and said, "Penny you remember…"

"Stephanie, yes I remember. I'm Penny," said Penny, holding out her hand. "You were the doctor that Leonard dated. If I remember right, you moved in for a while." Penny gave a sideways glance at Leonard, who looked back at Penny looking worried.

While she took Penny's hand, it was clear that Stephanie didn't remember her. Penny thought, _So, you don't remember me…well, we only did meet once, but how about I remind you._ Penny said, "I'm the woman who came to get coffee in her underwear."

Stephanie actually chuckled, "Ahhhh, yes, I remember now. I was a bit puzzled by you that morning. I'm sorry I didn't remember without the reminder." There was an uncomfortable pause. "Ah, Leonard said you just got married. Did you have to push things along with him, like I did?"

Penny smiled, she remembered, a bit guiltily now, telling Leonard about slowing it down. She seemed kind of sweet when they first met. And now, despite her question to Leonard, Penny liked her. She said, "He had to push me, he was always ready. I was the one who had commitment problems."

"I wouldn't have thought that from when we were dating," Stephanie said thoughtfully.

Penny chuckled, "Yeah, it was reversed with us, despite his being shy, he was always ready to move to the next level. It took a while for me to get over my issues." Penny paused, "Stephanie, do you remember Raj, Sheldon and Howard?"

Stephanie thought for a second, "I remember Raj, he couldn't talk to women, but he seemed OK. Sheldon… ahhhhh, Sheldon, how could anyone forget him? He's a bit of a wing nut, isn't he?" She giggled at the memory, "I don't think I could forget Howard either. Boy was he creepy."

Penny grinned at her, "I get it, trust me, I've know them for nine years. But, Raj can now speak with women. Sheldon…well, he isn't quite as bad as he used to be, and besides, he has a girlfriend." She chuckled, "But, Howard… Howard is now married, and his wife just found out she is pregnant."

"Howard is married?" Stephanie asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, and is going to be a father."

Stephanie shook her head.

Penny said, "Believe me, I understand, he tried to hit on me all the time. But now? He's changed, he's matured. Well, at least he isn't creepy anymore."

"But…do you know how we met?"

"Yeah, I know," chuckled Penny, "Leonard told me. I snapped his eyepatch, before he went out that night."

Stephanie laughed, "That was ridiculous, wasn't it."

The more she talked to her, the more Penny liked her. Penny suddenly thought of something,

"Do you and your husband have anything to do tomorrow night?"

Leonard looked at Penny, with a quizzical look.

"Not that I know of, why?"

"Well, the rest of the group is coming over tomorrow night," said Penny. "Why don't you and your husband come on by, and say hi to them?"

Stephanie looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then said, "If we don't have anything, and we can find a sitter, we'll be over, what time?"

"A bit after six?" Penny said with an evil grin as a thought occurred to her.

"OK, We'll see you then. It was so nice meeting you again, and Leonard, so nice seeing you."

"Goodbye Stephanie," said Leonard and Penny together.

Stephanie walked up her drive way. Leonard and Penny turned and walked toward their house.

"So, that was Stephanie, huh?" said Penny.

"Yes, and thanks"

"For what?" Penny asked.

"For not making a big deal about it."

"Why should I make a big deal about it?" Penny said. "I mean other than asking you how you thought she looked and hugging you, what was wrong with it?" Penny had a wolfish grin on her face.

"So, you heard and saw that?"

"Yeah, I did," said Penny. "It was when I heard her ask you how she looked, with that voice, when I thought I'd better let her know I was there. Despite all that, I liked her, and she seemed pretty cool when you were dating. I'm not sure I would have taken another woman coming over the way I was dressed as coolly as she did. Since I like her, and she's our neighbor, I asked her and her husband over."

"Well, that's good, they are our neighbors and it would be good to keep it friendly," said Leonard. "We do still have to let the rest of our friends know where we're at now."

"Yes, and I need to talk to Amy and Bernadette," said Penny. Leonard unlocked the door, and they entered, Penny ran to the security pad, entered 2311 and pushed the arm button. The light turned orange, the display went blank and she turned and smiled at Leonard and said, "How about I make up a couple of salads?"

Two hours later they had eaten and were finishing unpacking the kitchen boxes. They gathered all the empty boxes in their garage. There were still many boxes that had some of their personal things, they would get to them later, on an as needed basis. They walked back through the house, stopping in each room to talk about what was needed in that room first.

The bedrooms, for now were fine. Leonard's bed was in the master bedroom as it was larger, but there was only one of his nightstands and his dresser. Penny's bed, and Leonard's other nightstand was in what they were currently thinking as their guest room, along with Penny's dresser. Each of the rooms needed a couple of pieces, mostly bookshelves, to finish them up.

The other two bedrooms we're scarcely finished. Both had quite a few boxes that had yet to be unloaded. Leonard's office had his desk and a couple of bookcases and a couple of whiteboards. Penny's office only had one bookcase, and her coffee table, as she didn't have a desk. One of the kitchen chairs, filled out the furniture.

The great room looked sad. Penny's small couch, and chair were the main things. Her nightstands were one either side of the couch. Her television stand and television were along the wall opposite of the kitchen. There were a couple of bookcases trying to fill out the rest of the room, and failing.

The dining room wasn't much better, with her small table and three chairs. The kitchen was the most filled out, but even there, it looked rather empty, as this kitchen was so much bigger than even the on in 4A. Penny sat down at the table, Leonard went to the refrigerator. "You want a water?"

"Sure."

He grabbed two and brought them to the table, sat down, and said, "Well, what do you think we need."

"We definitely need some area rugs and some runners," said Penny, "matched with some drapes…"

"I'm going to leave that to you," laughed Leonard. "But I would like to see what you picked out before you buy it."

"No problem," said Penny. "Some new furniture definitely, but we can talk about that. So what are we doing tomorrow?"

"I thought we could do brunch at Marston's," said Leonard. "On the way home, we can pick up some fruit and vegetable trays, a couple of sandwich trays and some wine and beer, some milk for Sheldon and soft drinks and water, mostly for Bernadette. Get things set up for a get together."

"Well, shouldn't I talk to Bernadette and Amy then?"

Leonard paused, looking uncomfortable. Finally he said, "Do you want me to call Sheldon?"

Penny sighed, "No, let me call Amy. She might be more receptive and she can get him to come. You just know Sheldon's gone nuts about this and we may have trouble getting him to come over without her help."

"Yeah," said Leonard, "she may also understand better why we did what we did. But, I don't want to put you in the middle of Sheldon and me. This was my idea you know."

"Yeah, but I agreed to it and, I'm not in the middle, I'm on your side," said Penny smiling and grabbing his hand.

Leonard smiled, and squeezed her hand, "You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do, and I'll tell you again, I'm on your side."

They looked at each other for a moment, before Leonard said, "Why don't you call Amy?"

"I'm thinking I may text her," said Penny. "I'd prefer talking to her, after I know that Sheldon won't be around."

"Good call," said Leonard. "After you get done talking to Amy, are you going to call Bernadette?"

"Yeah," said Penny. "If I can get Amy to bring Sheldon over, then I'll get Bernadette, Howard, and Raj over about an hour later."

"An hour?"

"Well," said Penny. "If we can't get Sheldon to forgive us and get him to stay, in an hour, they won't be here when the others show up."

Leonard nodded his head, "How about after you talk to Amy and Bernadette, we work for an hour or two? We have a quite a few boxes to empty yet. I'll order a pizza for dinner and we can work through as many as we can tonight."

"That sound's good to me, let me get my phone." Penny went to the kitchen, where her phone was plugged in, unplugged it and brought it to the couch, sitting down with Leonard.

Looking anxious, Penny said, "Here we go."

Penny typed in:

 **amy**

Penny and Lenard waited. After a few minutes, with no reply, she tried again:

 **amy please**

They waited. Several minutes went by, again with no answer. Penny shrugged her shoulders and looking at Leonard said, "Maybe she doesn't want to talk to us. Maybe we just pissed her off too much."

"Maybe we have," agreed Leonard. "Well, I suppose we can start working on emptying the boxes."

"You start working on it," said Penny with a grin. "I'm going in the kitchen to look at the mountains."

Leonard shook his head as they rose from the couch. He was about to say something to her when they heard a tone and Penny looked at her phone:

 **What?**

Penny typed in:

 **is sheldon around**

Penny waited, then she saw:

 **No, I'm at my apartment, why?**

Penny typed in:

 **i want 2 talk 2 u call me**

Penny and Leonard sat back down, waiting. It had been five minutes and they hadn't yet heard the ring tone for Amy's number.

"Do you think she's got doubts about calling you?"

"Yeah, she might," Penny sighed. "We've either really pissed her off, or we've hurt her, probably a combination of both. Well, lets get to the boxes."

"Boxes? Or looking out the window?"

Penny laughed and stood up, Leonard did the same and they took one step, when they heard from Penny's phone, Amy's ringtone. They looked at each other and sat back down. Penny answered and put it on speaker saying, "Hi Amy, Leonard and I are here."

"What do you want," said Amy, hostility in her voice?

Penny and Leonard looked at each other, Penny notice the tone, but she pressed on, "We wanted to explain to you about why we left without telling you."

"Why," snapped Amy? "Because you don't want to deal with Sheldon? Because you want me to do your dirty work for you?"

Penny shook her head. She was going to be difficult, not that Penny blamed her, but it was going to make it tougher. "Amy, Please…"

"Don't Amy please me," said Amy. "Do you know how difficult the last 24 hours have been for me? My boyfriend feels like he's been abandoned by his former best friend. I didn't think **my** former best friend would do that to me."

Leonard and Penny looked shocked. Penny said softly, "Former best friend? Did we make the two of you that angry that you would drop us as friends?"

"No," said Amy, "Sheldon is my best friend now, like Leonard is yours, I would assume."

Leonard and Penny both raised their eyebrows, but smiled at each other.

"Amy, you know we had to do it," said Penny.

"Why do I know that?"

"Why did you break up with him," asked Penny?

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while.

"Amy?"

"Ok," said Amy, "so he's difficult, but that doesn't mean you just sneak off without telling anyone. Why would you do that to us?"

"For the same reason we didn't tell Raj, or Howard and Bernadette," said Penny. "As a matter of fact, I have to call Bernadette after I'm done here. I wanted to talk to you first."

"Ok," said Amy, "tell me".

"Tell you what?"

"Why you moved out without telling any of us," said Amy.

"OK, but you can't tell Sheldon we told you."

"I swear," said Amy earnestly.

Penny began, "A couple of weeks after you broke up with him, we told him Leonard was moving over to my apartment. He went all old school, took everything out of the Living room and used the stuff he had there in 2003. He was sad because he missed you, he was sad because Leonard was moving out…"

"I thought he was mad at me, not sad," said Amy. "And Leonard was only moving across the hall"

"Well, at that point he was sad about you, and you know how he gets when he's upset," said Penny. "Sheldon was talking about Leonard visiting less and less, until he wouldn't see Leonard anymore. Leonard felt so bad about missing him. You remember, in the store, how both of them got when they thought of not being with each other?"

Leonard whispered, "What are you talking about? That was you that felt so bad."

Penny held her hand over her phone, "Yes, but she doesn't know that and both of you do get misty when you think of separating."

Leonard thought for a few seconds, nodded his head and said, "Sure, sure."

While Penny and Leonard were whispering, Amy was thinking. Finally she said, "OK, so what do we do?"

"So your good with this?"

"I wouldn't go that far," said Amy. "But, I know I'll eventually get over it so I might as well do it now."

"You sure," asked Penny? "If not we can talk about this some more."

"No, I get why and after all, I'm his girlfriend. Besides, I want to see where you guys are living now."

"OK," said Penny, "what we would like for you to do, is to come over tomorrow, and bring Sheldon with you."

"When?"

"Tomorrow, afternoon" said Penny. She continued explaining, "We are planning on having everyone over, were going to get some veggie, fruit, and cheese trays. Some sandwich trays, some drinks. It's just a get together so you can see where we live and check out our place. But first, we really need to talk to him, and apologize to both of you, so, how about around five?"

"How am I supposed to do that," asked Amy?

"I don't know," said Penny. "Maybe take him to the train store, or the zoo, then head over here."

"We haven't been to the zoo for a while," mused Amy. "I can take him to see the koalas, that will make him happier. Take his mind off of it."

"That sounds great," said Penny.

"Am I going to go through all of this, just for you two to cave into him again?"

"No, we won't, not now, we can't, you'll see." She paused for a few seconds. "Amy, we're really sorry, but we needed to get out of there, and just be in our own place, by ourselves ."

There was no answer for a few seconds before Amy said, "I can understand that. But I'm still not really happy about all of this."

"I know, and you have good reason to feel that way. But, please, bring him here tomorrow."

"I'll be there," said Amy. "I appreciate you explaining it, I understand some of why you did it. Oh, where exactly are you two?"

Penny looked at Leonard who spoke. "We'll text you tomorrow afternoon."

"Still trying to hide it? Why not now?"

"We'll text you the address tomorrow," said Leonard. "So you don't have to worry about letting things slip."

Penny heard Amy sigh, and then say, "You probably have your reasons."

"Yes, we do. So, is five good for you?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. I'll get him there, but I can't promise I can get him to the door of where ever it is you are."

"Just get him here, please," begged Penny. "If you can't get him to come in, we'll talk to him at the car."

"OK Penny."

"Really Amy, thank you so much," said Penny sincerely. "Try not to be so mad, we really are sorry."

"I'll work on it, bye."

"Bye, Amy, thank you again," said Penny, and then disconnected. She looked at Leonard, "Do you think we can apologize and not cave to him?"

"Yes," said Leonard. "This is different. It's not a case of keeping our stuff in his apartment. We bought the house, we moved the stuff here. We can be apologetic, but we don't have to worry. We have the house, we've moved in, if he's sad, he's sad. Him and Amy are back together and besides, we've have a plan, right?"

Penny sighed, "I worry about how much he can manipulate us. But, yeah, we do have a plan, and we have the house."

"So, we really have nothing to worry about" he said.

Penny nodded, then said, "Bernadette's up next." She dialed Bernadette's number, put it on speaker and waited. It went to voicemail, and Penny said, "Bernadette, call me," and hung up.

They sat there for a few minutes, and Leonard said, "Well, the last two times we got our call or message, after we got up. Want to try it again?" Penny smile and shrugged. They stood up and as soon as they did, the phone rang.

They both laughed as Penny looked at phone, seeing Bernadette's name. They both sat down and after the second ring, she answered, " Hi Bernadette."

They heard Bernadette and could tell she was upset, her voice sounding too much like Howard's mother for comfort. "Penny, where are you? Where's Leonard?"

"He's right here. We're fine, we're at our new place."

"Well, we figured that out. Where is this new place," asked Bernadette?

"Bernadette, we will tell you tomorrow," said Penny.

"Tomorrow? Do you realize how nuts Sheldon has gone," ask Bernadette? "Do you realize how worried we were about you?"

"Bernadette…"

"We didn't know where you were," said Bernadette. "Raj has been trying to track you down, Sheldon's been calling, Amy's been calling. It has been chaotic…"

"Bernadette…"

"I don't need this," said Bernadette. "My hormones are going crazy enough as it is with the pregnancy. I tell you, if I could get a hold of the two of you, I'd break…"

"Bernadette, we had no choice."

"What the hell do you mean you had no choice," Bernadette's voice had finally changed back to her normal high pitch.

Penny said, "Do you remember when Leonard and I tried to move out last year?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Sheldon acted all sad," Penny explained. "We felt so bad we agreed to stay." Penny saw Leonard's eyebrows go up, "We," he mouthed? She held her finger to her closed mouth.

"What's that have to do with it," asked Bernadette?

"Well," started Penny. "We were afraid that if we tried to move across the hall again, Sheldon would do the same thing and we would cave again. And we'd be stuck there again. Bernadette, you know Leonard and I have to get out of there, and this was the only way we thought we could do it. Without Sheldon pulling us back in."

"But why not tell us? We don't live with Sheldon," Bernadette said. "We wouldn't have said anything."

"We couldn't risk it," said Penny. "You already said that Sheldon and Amy have called. We didn't want to put you in a position of having to keep a secret, or lie or accidentally tell him what we did."

"Why would you think we wouldn't be able to keep a secret," asked Bernadette? "We didn't say anything at all to you about the girl Leonard kissed on the North Sea…"

"What the hell?" yelled Penny, looking up at Leonard, angrily.

 **A/N The actress that played Stephanie, Sara Rue, is currently on 'Mom' in a recurring role. Similar to Stephanie here, she is married, has a daughter, and has lost quite a bit of weight.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N See if you can spot the reference to "Chew Toy" in here. The other thing, I don't own the characters, I want to buy them, but the buck-two-eighty I have in my pocket probably isn't enough.**

Chapter 4

"Didn't Leonard tell you?"

"He told me about the girl and what happened," said an obviously furious Penny, "not that you guys knew about her." She turned toward him, "Leonard, how could you tell them and not tell me? I was…"

Bernadette said, "Calm down Penny."

"No, I won't," said Penny angrily. She looked at Leonard and in almost a hiss said, "this…this… is…just unforg…"

"Penny," Leonard whispered, "finish with Bernadette, you can yell at me afterward."

Penny paused, "So anyhow," said Penny, the anger still evident in her voice, "How long have you known?"

Bernadette sounded apologetic, "Since about four days after Leonard got home. Howard told me."

Penny yelled, "Howard knows?"

"Yes, Leonard told him."

"Great," growled Penny, with a look at Leonard. "How about you explain why you didn't tell me about that? And **after** that, then I can explain to you why we didn't tell you about us moving out."

"No, no, no," said Bernadette, "how about we just call it even for now?"

"Yeah, why don't we?" snapped Penny.

There was an awkward pause, then Bernadette said, "So, if were not going to talk about you moving out, what are we going to talk about?"

Penny took a deep breath, trying to control her voice. "We want to invite you and Howard, Raj and whoever he is dating right now, over to our new place tomorrow night, around six, for a little party. We'll have some platters out, some drinks, a few of them non-alcoholic for you. We want to show you around our place."

"That sounds good. Six did you say?"

"Yes," said Penny, "we'll call you tomorrow with the where."

"Tomorrow?" said Bernadette with an edge to her voice. "Why don't you tell us now?"

Penny answered coldly, "No problem, as soon as you explain to me what you said to Howard when you found out about the girl kissing Leonard."

"Ok Penny," said Bernadette, "I got it."

"Yeah, I thought you would."

There was a pause, then Bernadette said, "Penny?"

"Yeah?"

"Just remember that afternoon in my apartment with you and Amy after the bachelor party, how I felt and where Howie and I are at now."

Penny smiled and nodded. "OK, I got it. Thanks Bernadette. We'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Ok, goodbye"

"Bye Bernadette."

Penny reached down and disconnected. She turned toward Leonard with an angry look, but smiled inwardly. Leonard looked terrified. She leaned over, grabbed his shoulders and kissed him.

The kiss lasted for quite a bit of time, until Penny pulled back.

"What?" said Leonard, confusion in his voice.

"Leonard," said Penny, "remember, you and I have worked through this already."

"Okay, but you were obviously mad there for a second."

"It was a shock," agreed Penny, "I was more mad at Bernadette, than you, since she didn't tell me." Penny thought for a second, "Why did you tell her?"

"I didn't," said Leonard, "I talked to Howard, he must have said something to her."

"Why Howard?"

"He was the only one I felt could understand my problem," explained Leonard. "Who else was I going to talk to? Raj? Sheldon? Neither of them would have clue, not to mention Sheldon wouldn't have been able to keep it to himself, so I asked Howard. Who, by the way, recommended I tell you right away."

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't because I was afraid of you breaking up with me," said Leonard. "You had said something about me messing us up, if I stayed, but here was something that could mess us up, because I went. I finally decided it was one kiss, no one was going to know…"

"But then, on the way to the wedding, you told me you wanted it out there." It was a flat statement by Penny, but she didn't look angry. "I understand that though, as it was a way of sabotaging the wedding. Just don't let it happen again."

Leonard shook his head as he said, "I told you, food and you, that's it for my mouth."

She smiled. "How about we get back to work, you order the pizza in a couple of hours, then we work some more on getting things settled."

"Sounds good," He rose, leaned down and kissed her, then turned and headed for his office.

* * *

**********************************TRD***********************************

* * *

Penny slowly woke up. She could feel Leonard's right arm over her, his fingers intertwined with her left hand. She was still amazed that they could find each others hands while asleep. It was something that had never happened to her before, and it started the first night with Leonard, all those years ago. She untangled her fingers, then slid out from under his arm and headed around the foot of the bed towards Leonard's side. Then she remembered the bathroom was now on her side of the bed, and she turned around.

After finishing, she walked out of the bedroom toward the kitchen, and started the coffee. While waiting for it, she stared out of the window, looking at the mountains. After only two days, she was already captivated by the view. She could hear Leonard walk into the kitchen.

"Ahhhhhhh," said Leonard, "that smells good. Still looking at he mountains?"

"Yes," said Penny. "I didn't quite understand the power of looking at them, until I was here."

"Pretty good eh?"

"Yep," said Penny. "Come on lets get some coffee."

They got their coffee and sat at the table drinking it quietly for a few minutes. Leonard was looking around and said, "Yeah, we need to get some things for the kitchen. It looks rather empty in here."

"The whole house looks pretty empty." Penny smiled and said, "But, I get to decorate it, so it's good."

"Do you want to get a shower before heading over to Marston's?"

"That's a good idea, but let's finish this cup first." Penny said. They sat there, chatting about the various things they felt they needed for the house, while they finished their coffee. The got up and put their cups in the dishwasher, then headed to the bedroom. Upon entering the bedroom, Leonard tried to head toward the bathroom, but she was pulling him toward the bed.

"I thought we were going to get ready?"

"Well, we might as well get sweaty before getting the shower," said Penny. "And besides, I want try out that 'your mouth on only me thing'."

"But, that will take longer for me to put my mouth on the food, and…" he said.

"Leonard," said Penny threateningly.

He grinned at her. "OK, my mouth on you first," he said, pulling her toward him.

And hour and a half later and after their shower, they were enjoying their brunch at Marston's. This was the first time they had had to drive there, as, from the apartment, it had been close enough to walk to the restaurant. Before leaving, they discussed whether or not Sheldon might see them, but decided Marston's was far enough away from the apartment that they wouldn't have to worry about it. There was also the fact that Sheldon didn't like mixed meals like brunch, and so, they decided, there wasn't a risk of running into him.

After finishing brunch, they left the restaurant and drove to a shopping center near their house. They started with the liquor store, buying various wines, some beer, and a bottle of vodka and whiskey each. They put those purchases into the car and then went to the grocery store, across the parking lot. Wandering through the aisles, they went about buying various items they knew they needed for the evening, then looked for the trays of fruit, vegetables, cheese and sandwiches.

They paid for their items, put them in the car, and headed home. After carrying their purchases into the house, Penny said, "Hey, I'm going to run over to Stephanie's and let them know to be here a little after six."

"Ok, I'll put the things away."

Penny gave Leonard a kiss and walked out the door. Leonard had put everything away, and noticed that Penny hadn't come back yet. He headed for the living room and started taking things out of one of the boxes, putting the items up on the few shelves they currently had. He had emptied the first box, and puzzled that Penny still had not come back, decided to find out what was keeping her. He started toward the door, when it opened and Penny walked in with a smile.

"Where were you?" asked Leonard.

"I told you, I went to tell Stephanie and her husband what time to be here, you're going to love him Leonard"

"I guess I'll see tonight," said Leonard, "but I didn't think it would take that long."

"It didn't," said Penny in an offhand manner. "After I told them, her and I sat and talked for a bit."

"What did you talk about?" Leonard thought of something, "You weren't comparing our sex life with one of my exes again, were you?" asked Leonard, sounding anxious.

Penny chuckled, but looked uncomfortable.

"It was our sex life, wasn't it?"

"No," said Penny, "I just told her I was sorry."

"About what?"

"I just felt like it was my fault you guys broke up," said Penny. "I mean I told you you needed to tell her to move out, because you felt uncomfortable. When you finally told her, she broke it off."

"But, you were right," said Leonard. "I wasn't comfortable with her moving in, so it was right for me to tell her I wasn't ready for it"

"Leonard, I wasn't comfortable with her moving in."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know why," said Penny. "You and I had become pretty close by then. I could just come over, you'd come over, we could talk to each other. But, when you started dating her, you quit coming over. I guess I kinda missed you. So part of me was hoping you would push her and she wouldn't want to be pushed, and she would break up with you."

"Penny," said Leonard, reprovingly.

"I know, I know," said Penny defensively. "That's why told her. When I went over there, she was all happy, asking if she could bring something, being really nice. It just made me feel guiltier about it. After you two broke up, I didn't expect to see her again so I didn't worry about it. Then we saw her yesterday, and it kinda brought it all back. So I told her, but you know what, she was fine with it. She's happy with her husband and kids, I told her I was happy with you. So we both agreed it ended up happy for both of us."

"So you think it ended happy for you, even though Gretchen…"

"Leonard, shut up."

Leonard grinned at her. "They still coming over tonight?"

Penny nodded, "I told you she asked if they could bring anything. They are looking forward to it. I told her no, we had it all covered."

Leonard said, "Come on, I'm going to move things around to set things up, you call Amy and Bernadette."

Penny walked over to the dining room and sat down at the table. She looked for Amy number and tapped it, then waited. After five rings it went to voicemail and Penny said, "Amy, I'm calling to tell you where to come this afternoon, call me back."

After disconnecting, Penny dialed Bernadette's number and after two rings she heard Bernadette say, "Hello Penny."

"Hi Bernadette, how are you?"

"Better, now that I've talked to you yesterday," said Bernadette.

"Yeah," said Penny. "I also have to thank you for reminding me about you forgiving Howard."

"So you didn't yell at Leonard?"

"Nah, we had already talked about it, after we got back from Vegas," said Penny. "But, it did helped me get over being so mad at you, which I might have taken it out on Leonard. I did talk to him though, I was just curious as to why you guys knew. He explained how he told Howard, I'm guessing that Howard told you."

"Yes, he did. Leonard was worried, so he asked," said Bernadette. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Penny."

"Don't worry about it," said Penny. "I'm sure you had you're reasons, just like we had our reasons for not telling you we were leaving."

"So, you going to tell me…"

"Yep, were at 1339 Sierra Madre Villa Avenue, in Pasadena, near the mountains."

"Hold on…, I'm writing it down…" Bernadette said. "…Madre…Villa…Avenue, Ok, got it."

"Do you want to know how to get here?"

"No," said Bernadette, "I'll put it in my phone when we head over. Around six, right?"

"Yeah," said Penny. "Amy and Sheldon are supposed to come over around five. Were going to try to smooth things over with them."

Bernadette chuckled, "Good Luck with that."

"We figured if we can't at least get them to understand, in an hour, they may leave. But, you guys will still be here," said Penny.

"How bad is it with them, Penny?"

Penny said, "Amy's not happy, but she understands why we did it. It's Sheldon were going to have a problem with."

"Yeah, like I said, good luck," said Bernadette. "See you around six."

"OK, bye Bernadette."

"Bye Penny."

Penny disconnected from Bernadette and pushed on Amy's number. She waited while it rang, until it went to voicemail. She disconnected and went to help Leonard move the chairs into the living room. Then they moved the table into the kitchen. They were going to put the trays of the various things on it. Earlier, they had brought the coffee table from Penny's office, put it in front of the couch. Now, they placed the chairs around the rest of the free area around the table.

Leonard looked at Penny and mistaking why she looked unhappy walked over to her, his arm going around her. Trying to cheer her up he said, "Considering we just moved in on Friday, it doesn't look too bad."

Penny looked around and said, "No, it doesn't." Penny pulled out her phone, and said, "I'm going to try to call Amy again." She pushed on Amy's number and listened to the ring tone and when it went to voicemail again said, "Amy, this is Penny. If you get this, our address is 1339 Sierra Madre Villa Avenue, in Pasadena, near the mountains. Please let us know you're coming. Bye."

Penny disconnected. She gave Leonard a sad look and said, "Leonard, I don't think Amy and Sheldon are going to show up."

 **A/N. While the address is fake, it is in a real neighborhood near the foothills, North of Pasadena. One of the houses in this area is for sale, and it is what I'm using as the model for Lenny's house, and yes, there is a nice view of the Southern slope of the San Gabriel Mountains.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 **A/N I apologize for the delay, but several things came together to delay it. The original was over 4000 words, so I split it. This means that the last chapter is the next one, Chapter six. I'm editing that one now also, so sometime this weekend, although I may wait to Monday. Real Life is already intruding.**

"Come on, all we can do is hope they get here" said Leonard, "let's get our showers"

They turned and walked toward their bedroom and once there, took their clothes off and headed for the shower. Penny loved their shower, and their bathroom in general. It was big enough for both of them, with dual sinks. The shower was very large and had two shower fixtures. Both of the fixtures could be used as a hand held shower head, or a regular shower head, when stored. This time, like their first few showers here, they were playful, would soap each other up and then use the handheld heads, to rinse each other off. They each washed their own hair, and left the shower and started drying each other off.

A half hour later, they, and their hair were dried and they were getting dressed, Penny again enjoying the room in the walk in closet. Looking at her side of the closet, she picked out a pair of skinny jeans and a flowery blouse and carried them out to the bedroom. Leonard had his maroon pants, his recycle shirt and a grey hoodie. It seems those were the one constant in his clothes, since she met him. Of course, she didn't mind, and besides, his choice of suits and ties was now much more discerning than the one suit he had when she met him.

She put some light make-up on, and teased her hair a bit. She then started putting on her clothes. She thought about Amy and Sheldon and said to Leonard, "Do you really think they are going to make it?"

"I think so," said Leonard. "Amy seemed to understand what happened, and she can work miracles with Sheldon."

"I'm not so sure," said Penny sadly. "Amy would usually call, to at least tell me she would be coming. She hasn't even called to tell me she got the address, that tells me she isn't coming."

"Well, we'll find out in 15 to 20 minutes"

"Yep, we will," said Penny. "Let's put the booze and mixers out." They headed for the kitchen.

* * *

It was 5:10, Penny had just returned from looking out at their driveway, for the fourth time. Sheldon and Amy still weren't there.

She sat next to Leonard and said, "I told you Leonard, they're not coming."

"Hold on," said Leonard, "Amy just might be having trouble with him, there's still time."

"I think we broke him, Leonard," said Penny.

"We didn't have a choice," said Leonard, pointedly.

"I know," said Penny, "I know." Penny rose and started toward the door.

"Penny, you just checked," said Leonard.

She turned to Leonard, "I know, but I can't help it." Penny walked to the window, looking out. "Leonard," she said excitedly.

"What?"

"They're in the driveway," she said, almost jumping up and down.

"What?"

"Amy's car is in the driveway," explained Penny. "Sheldon is still sitting in it, but Amy has his door open and is arguing with him. Should we go out?"

Leonard thought for a few seconds, "No, let Amy handle it. We're here, she's going to have to learn the reality that it's up to her to deal with him. If she comes to us and tells us she can't get him to come in, we'll send you out, to see if you can get him come in. And failing that, we'll go out and see if he'll talk to us there."

"Okay, help me finish up setting things out."

They made several trips between the kitchen and the dining area. The finally finished placing the plates, cups and cutlery on the table. The food trays would stay in the refrigerator for now, they would put those out later when the others arrived. They walked out of the kitchen, and sat on a couple of the chairs, from Penny's table. The were both thinking about how they could get Sheldon and Amy to understand. After a few minutes, they heard the doorbell ring, they both rose.

"It might be better if you get it," said Leonard.

"You may be right," said Penny, "we don't know how much of the crazy Sheldon he'll be." She turned and walked to the door and opened it.

"Hello, Sheldon, Amy, Please come in."

"Hello Penny," said Amy stiffly, as she moved into the room, but Sheldon didn't move. Amy stopped and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him in. "Come on Sheldon."

Sheldon shook off her hand and walked into the house.

Penny closed the door and led them to the living room. Leonard was there waiting for them. He had noticed Amy looking around as she walked into the living room, which he took as a good sign. As there was no expression on her face, he couldn't read Amy, but from years of living with him, he knew Sheldon was extremely upset. "Hello Sheldon," he said. "Hi, Amy."

"Hello" said Sheldon his voice dripping with distain.

"Hello Leonard," said Amy, using the same tone she had used with Penny.

"Won't you please sit down?"

"For what?" snapped Sheldon.

Leonard controlled his voice, "Penny and I would like to talk to you."

"Why would I want to talk to you," said Sheldon angrily? "You left without telling me you were leaving, or ending the roommate agreement. Besides," Sheldon looked around, "you know I have to find my place to sit here, although I'm still not sure I want to find one."

"Sheldon, please sit down," said Leonard. "You can take your time, finding a spot, but be aware that our furniture, both the location and type will change, so your spot may not be here, if you decided to come back again."

Sheldon said, "Then where do you suggest?" From his voice, Leonard could tell this wasn't going to be easy.

Trying to control of his voice, Leonard said, "Why don't you and Amy sit together on the couch?"

Amy and Sheldon moved over to the couch, and both sat uncomfortably. Leonard sat in the chair, Penny pulling one of the kitchen table chairs over.

"So," said Sheldon, "what do you want to talk about?"

"Penny and I, moving out," explained Leonard. "Your reaction to what happened. What's going to happen now."

"Do I get to ask questions, or are you just going to tell me why you abandoned me?"

"I will explain to you why we felt we needed to do what we did," said Leonard. He stared directly at Sheldon, with a stern look on his face. "If you want to ask questions, Penny or I may expand on it, or we may feel we don't have to tell you."

Sheldon looked at Amy, she gave a slight not to him. Leonard could tell he was still miffed, but he turned to Leonard and said, "OK, I will listen."

"Do you remember the table Penny and I got for the apartment, Sheldon," asked Leonard?

"Yes."

"And how you acted like a baby and you used Amy to manipulate Penny to feel sorry for you," said Leonard?

Sheldon's voice rose, "I was upset by the change in…"

"No, it wasn't that," said Leonard cutting Sheldon off. "Because after it was all over, you gave me a smirk and told me sometimes the baby wins. You knew what your were doing."

Although Sheldon was quiet, from the look on his face, he was even more upset than he had been.

Leonard said accusingly, "Then there was how you made Penny feel bad about us moving out, by manipulating her to think you were sad we were leaving. Then she convinced me… "

"No," snapped Sheldon, "I did feel sad about that."

"Oh yeah, you didn't seem to have any problem looking for another roommate, even asking Amy, when the others didn't work out," said Leonard, the irritation was obvious in his voice. "When you couldn't find another roommate, you manipulated us, plain and simple. You started telling us what we had to do as soon as we agreed to stay."

"I did not do anything like that," said Sheldon indignantly.

"Yes, you did," growled Leonard. "You told us that we had to spend most of the time here, the Fourth of July here. You went to draw up a new roommate agreement immediately. We haven't told you before, but Penny was unhappy at the apartment, she was unhappy with us living with you. She was even talking to that psychologist about it. I was unhappy with the situation, and I told the psychologist about you also."

"So then why didn't you just move out," said Sheldon, with annoyance and getting louder.

"Notice we did move out," snapped Leonard, his voice also getting louder. "Look at how you tried to keep our stuff in the apartment when you thought we were just going across the hall. If we had told you we were moving you would have come up with something to try to keep us there. And, besides, when we were arguing about moving things across the hall, you told us to go ahead and move out. You said we could leave."

"Leonard," said Sheldon now sounding angry, "are you renting this house or buying it?"

Leonard was surprised by the change in subject, but answered with pride, "We're buying it."

"So, before I told you to move out, you already knew you were buying this house and were leaving the apartment anyhow," said Sheldon acrimoniously.

"Sheldon," said Leonard coldly, trying to change the subject, "things are changing, you're just going to have to deal with that."

"I have no choice," said Sheldon shouted, "you've abandoned me."

"Only because you are always being so damn manipulative, you crazy bastard," said an outraged Leonard.

Simultaneously, Amy and Penny called out, "Sheldon, Leonard."

Leonard and Sheldon, anger visible on their faces, looked at their partner, then back at each other.

Penny stood and pulling Leonard with her into the kitchen. "Leonard, come with me."

"But…"

"But nothing," said Penny. She stuck her head back out of the kitchen, "Amy would you like some wine and Sheldon, do you want some milk?"

"Yes, I would, white Please."

"Yes, Penny, some milk would be nice."

Penny pushed Leonard further into the kitchen. She went to the refrigerator, got a bottle of white wine and started pouring two glasses. When finished, she put the wine back in the refrigerator, grabbed a beer, and brought it over for Leonard. She looked at Leonard and said, "You need to control yourself."

"Penny, you saw how he…"

"Yes," she said, "I saw. And, you have a right to be mad, hell, I'm mad, but I also know he's hurt."

"So were just going to give into him again," asked Leonard sarcastically?

"Of course not," said Penny. She thought about this. She knew Leonard was angry, but she had to calm him down. "But you don't have to rub it in." Penny got the milk and poured a glass. "You know he's worried about how he's going to get along without us. We have to make sure he knows he's still important to us. That we will see each other. Remember his worry about drifting apart?"

Leonard thought about it for a few seconds. From the other room, he could hear Amy, talking to Sheldon. He couldn't make out the words, but from her tone, Leonard understood Amy was trying to calm Sheldon down, much as Penny was doing for him.

He took a deep breath and said seriously, "You're not caving this time Penny."

"Of course not," she said. "We've got the house now. We aren't going back, we can't go back, we make it clear that things have changed, and we are staying here. We just have to make him understand and we can't do it by making him angry."

"So, what do you suggest," asked Leonard?

"First you are going to apologize to him. Bring up how little we've eaten with him. I've got some ideas too, so let's work together on this. Even if it sounds silly just follow along with me, OK?"

"OK," said Leonard with a slight smile.

"Here's my wine, get yourself a beer, and lets go get this straightened out."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Well, this is it. A shout out, again, to Zhalen, Hokie, and Jen for their work reading over the first drafts and guiding me on characterization. And, I forgot to thank Tripper. It was during a discsussion with Tripper, I had several of the ideas that found their way into this fic.**

Chapter 6

Leonard went to the fridge, grabbed a beer and they walked back out to the living room. Amy and Sheldon were still sitting on the couch, Sheldon staring at Amy with a disapproving look.

Penny handed the wine to Amy, the milk to Sheldon, and sat down in her chair, Leonard handed her wine to her and sat himself. Leonard looked uncomfortable, cleared his throat and looked at Sheldon. "Sheldon," he said, "I'm sorry I raised my voice."

"You should be, after all…"

"Shelllldonnnnn," said Amy reprovingly.

"Leonard, I'm sorry you…"

"No, Sheldon," said Amy.

"I don't think you…"

"Sheldon," Amy hissed.

"OK, fine," said Sheldon petulantly. "Leonard, I'm sorry I raised my voice at you also."

"Thank you, Sheldon," said Leonard, knowing he wouldn't get a thank you in return. He thought for a few seconds, working out how to tell Sheldon about when and who had changed, when they ate dinner, "I want to explain about what I mean when things are changing."

"Go ahead."

"How many time did we eat together this past week," asked Leonard.

"Just one," said Sheldon, "on Monday night."

"How many times last week," asked Leonard?

"It was Monday and Wednesday."

"How about the week before that?"

"Wednesday and Thursday," said Sheldon. "What's your point Leonard?"

Ignoring Sheldon, Leonard continued, "How about this week three years ago?"

Sheldon thought for a second, then said, "We ate together four nights that week."

"How about this week seven years ago?"

Again, Sheldon paused for a few seconds, "Every night that week."

"Was it just us?"

"No, for six of those nights, Howard and Raj ate with us," said Sheldon.

"And how many times have they eaten with us in the past month?"

"Three," said Sheldon.

"How many times did you eat with Amy last week?"

"Last week," asked Sheldon?

"Yes".

"Well, five nights," said Sheldon.

"Don't you see, Sheldon," said Leonard? "You've eaten dinner with Amy as many times as we've eaten together in the last three weeks and more than Howard and Raj."

Sheldon didn't say anything.

"Also, you're spending more time with Amy on the weekends," said Leonard. "Penny and I do various things on the weekend and you do things with Amy. Not to mention, we don't spend time alone anymore. Since Penny and I got married, almost every time you and I are together, Penny is here also. Howard and Raj don't come over to eat anymore. That's what I meant by things have changed."

"But, who's going to eat with me, on those nights you aren't there?"

"Well," explained Leonard, "you spend time with Amy".

"Well, she can't come over every night, who's going to eat with me then," ask Sheldon? "And who is going to drive me where I have to go?"

"Well, if you need to go somewhere," said Leonard, "I can take you."

Sheldon scoffed, "You're going to come all the way over to the apartment every time I need you?"

Penny spoke up, "Amy can drive you most of the time. You wouldn't mind that would you Amy?

"Not at all," said Amy. "I can take you where you need to go."

Sheldon snorted, "I can't make you come all the way over from her apartment either." He turned, "Leonard, you're leaving me with no one to turn to."

Penny smiled slyly, "Why doesn't Amy move in? Then she would be right there for dinner and if you needed to go somewhere, she'd be there. "

"Penny," said Sheldon, "you know I'm not comfortable with that. I know we recently had coitus, but that doesn't mean I'm ready for her to move in with me, to be just down the hall, sharing my shower." Penny could see how scared he was at that possibility.

Penny looked at Amy, noticing even she looked nervous. But she still broke into a sly grin, "Well, I wasn't talking about her moving in with you, I was talking about her moving into my old apartment. That way, you're not living together, but you would be close to each other."

Sheldon looked thoughtful, but Amy still looked unsure as she said, "I don't know Penny, you have a smaller apartment than I do."

Penny said, "Well, I'm sure we can figure something out.

Leonard spoke up, "You could put your desk and computer stuff where my desk was, next to Sheldon's desk. Think of it being an office for you. You could move your books, papers, all of that into the bookcases, where my books and papers were. And some of your decorations where my models and figurines were. That should give you enough room for all your things in the apartment."

"And Sheldon," Leonard said turning toward him, "so you don't have to worry about feeling like we've abandoned you, we'll set up an agreement to eat together one or two nights a week." He looked at Penny, she nodded, and he continued, "Maybe once here, once at your apartment." He paused, "But, you have to agree to moving things around to another night, if we find we have a conflict with the original night. We'll figure how many days, and the times later."

Amy and Penny were looking at each other, Amy gave a very slight nod, then moved her eyes toward Sheldon.

Penny understood. "You guys want another drink?"

Sheldon and Amy both pointed at their drinks, which were half-full.

As she stood, Penny said, "Well, I need one." She pulled Leonard up and said, "Come on, give me a hand." They went out to the kitchen, leaving Sheldon and Amy alone. Penny poured another glass of wine. Leonard grabbed another beer, turned and looked at Penny questioningly.

Penny saw his look and said, "Leonard, Amy agreed to moving into my apartment, she nodded to me. I'm giving her some time to convince Sheldon." Leonard nodded. He could hear them talking about it.

"That was pretty quick thinking about moving Amy in," said Leonard.

"Actually, I'd been thinking about it," said Penny. "I've still got six months on the lease."

"I know, but we figured we would have to pay for that."

"Yes," said Penny. "But, if we can get Amy to pay for those six months, it will help us, right?"

"True," said Leonard, nodding.

"You jumped right in with a good suggestion also."

"You told me to follow along with you," said Leonard. "It just made sense. She can make it like a home office. You've seen how cramped it is at her place. Her computer desk is crammed into the corner, almost no room on either side and she almost can use the chair on that side of her table. With her desk in Sheldon's apartment, she will almost have more room than she does now."

"Well, it was still a good idea. But, what's this about you driving him around?"

"Heheheh," chuckled Leonard. "I have a plan for that, see…"

Amy called out to them, Leonard grinned, grabbed his beer, and walked out toward the living room. Penny had no choice but to wonder what he was thinking and follow Leonard out. They got back to their chairs and sat down, looking expectantly at the Sheldon and Amy.

"Leonard, Penny," Sheldon started stiffly, "we think your idea is a good one."

Leonard and Penny looked at each other, knowing that Sheldon didn't actually think it was a good idea, they knew he just couldn't come up with a valid reason against Amy's arguments.

"So, we've decided that Amy will be moving into Penny's old apartment."

Amy spoke up, "Actually that works out for me, as I've got less than a month on my lease. They are telling me they were going to raise my rent, so this may be a good solution. Also, the apartment will be closer to Cal Tech. And, of course, I'll be there to take over the things you formerly did for him."

"I've got six months to go on my lease," said Penny as she broke into grin, "by then, Sheldon may be ready for you to move in."

Sheldon looked at her disdainfully, "I will not."

Amy looked at Penny and winked, Penny winked back.

"You will still be available to drive me Leonard," asked Sheldon, "when Amy isn't available?"

"Yes, Sheldon, I will," Leonard looked at Penny and smiled, "for six months."

Sheldon looked puzzled. "What?"

"That will give you enough time to get your driver's license," said Leonard. "You told us a year ago Amy's been working with you. Six months is more than enough time."

"But, Leonard, you know I'm not capable…"

Penny jumped in, "Amy, how's he been doing?"

Amy said, "Much better recently. The last time I didn't even have to correct…"

"Oh, very well," said Sheldon, sounding unhappy, "I'll get my license in six months."

"Just think, Sheldon," said Leonard. "If you get your license, you can get a car and get your parking spot back."

"So," said Penny, "we're OK?"

Amy and Sheldon looked at each other, and though Sheldon didn't look the happiest, he looked back to Leonard and Penny and nodded.

"Now, how about a tour of the house," said Penny rising.

Leonard and Penny took them through each of the rooms, mentioning the various pieces of furniture they would get for each of the rooms. Amy had some nice things to say, Sheldon remained quiet. They passed through the garage, into the back yard. They showed off the hot tub, the built in grill, but Sheldon was looking at the yard and foliage.

"Leonard?"

"Yes, Sheldon," said Leonard.

"Who's going to cut your grass, and trim the bushes and trees," asked Sheldon, still looking around.

"I will."

Sheldon scoffed.

"I will be helping him too," said Penny.

"Well," said Sheldon, "at least your Nebraska farming background will be of some use."

Penny rolled her eyes, then led Sheldon and Amy back into the house. They had just gotten seated again, when the doorbell sounded. Penny and Leonard rose and walked to their front door. Opening the door, they were greeted by a chorus of 'hellos' and 'hi's' from Howard, Bernadette, Raj, and Emily, which her and Leonard returned, then invited them all into the house.

Leonard was leading them to the living room when he looked back and saw Bernadette and Penny talking. He was looking at them, wondering what was going on, so It took Howard a couple of attempts to get Leonard's attention. After he did, he gave him a bottle of wine, which Leonard took to the kitchen. Just as he returned, Penny and Bernadette also came walking up.

The group were exchanging greetings when the doorbell rang. Penny gave Leonard a knowing look and walk to the door, and opened it. As she expected, it was Stephanie and her husband, Jack. Penny invited them in and walked with them to the group.

As they arrived at the table, Penny said, "Everyone, these are our new neighbors." Penny turned to Stephanie and Jack and said, "I'd like you to meet our friends." Penny turned to the group and introduced them individually, "This is Sheldon and his girlfriend Amy, Rajesh, we call him Raj, and his girlfriend Emily. And finally, this is Bernadette and…"

"Of course, Howard," said Stephanie sweetly, smiling.

Looking puzzled, Howard said, "Beg Pardon?"

Stephanie adding a sexy tone to her voice said, "Oh, Howard, don't you remember me? I could NEVER forget you."

Bernadette, with a question in her voice, whispered to Howard, "Howie, who is she?"

Stephanie continued, lowering her voice, "Oh, Howard offered to let me drive his car."

"Howie! When was this," said Bernadette?

Howard could hear the anger creeping into her voice. "I don't know," he said, sounding frustrated.

Stephanie said, "I'm glad to see your eye has healed and you don't need to wear that silly eye patch."

Howard peered at her intently.

"What eye patch, Howie," asked Bernadette, an accusatory tone in her voice.

"Stephanie," asked Howard?

At that, Stephanie, Penny, Leonard, and Bernadette broke into laughter. Jack looked amused, while Sheldon and Raj finally understood who Stephanie was.

Stephanie looked around, and seeing Amy still looked puzzled said to her, "I had a date with Howard quite a few years ago, but it didn't work out and I ended up dating Leonard for a while."

Sheldon said, "You didn't have a date with Howard, you left with…"

Leonard quickly interjected, "Yes, Sheldon, she was on a date with him."

It took a second or two, but Sheldon nodded knowingly.

"Penny," asked Amy, "did you know about Leonard and her dating?"

"Yes, Amy," said Penny, "I'll explain it later."

Stephanie said, "Before I forget, this is my husband, Jack. And, Bernadette, I'm sorry for playing the prank."

Bernadette giggled, "Don't worry about it, Stephanie. Penny let me in on it when we got here." She turned to Howard and gave him a hug. Howard just stood there, looking rather sheepish.

"Well, the drinks are in the kitchen, cold ones are in refrigerator," said Leonard. "Penny and I are going to set out the food, help yourself to the drinks."

After getting their drinks, they formed two groups, one of each gender. The guys questioning Jack about his work, hobbies and how he and Stephanie met, with Jack returning the questions for each of the other guys. They were all excited upon finding out that Jack was a Science Fiction fan. The girls asking Stephanie much the same questions, and with Penny, explained what had happened before Amy, Bernadette and Emily had become part of the group.

As the night went on, everyone started to get some of the food, and they broke into smaller, non-gender groups. Leonard and Penny took turns leading their friends through their new house. Everyone catching up with what had happened to Stephanie, and Stephanie finding out what had happened after her and Leonard broke up. And, of course Amy excitedly announcing she would be moving into Penny's old apartment.

After a few hours, Sheldon and Amy left. Amy explained they were both tired from the zoo. Stephanie and Jack also had to leave, their baby sitter had to be home by 10:00 PM, with the other four leaving about a half an hour later.

After everyone left, Penny and Leonard cleaned up. They were in the kitchen washing the glasses and putting the various things away. As they were cleaning, Leonard brought up the evening.

"I don't believe how well things worked out with Sheldon and Amy," said Leonard.

"I know," said Penny, "I expected him to put up much more of a fight."

"Well, we worked together," said Leonard. "Neither of us caved into him."

"Yeah," she said, "That's a first for us."

Leonard smiled at her, "You mean that's a first for you."

She gave him an angry look, but couldn't hold it, breaking into a smile, "Yeah, OK, you've been trying to get out of there for a while."

"And Amy was helpful, I still think you pointing out she could move into the empty apartment was brilliant."

"Of course," said Penny, "that's why you married me, my brains."

"Heheheheh," he chuckled, "Yeah, that's why."

She playfully slapped his arm, "Come on, were done."

They walked out of the kitchen and looked at all the chairs and the table in their living room.

Leonard said, "Well get those tomorrow night, right?"

Penny looked at him and said, "Right. Let's get ready for bed."

They again enjoyed the luxury of not having to take turns to prepare for bed, since they each had a sink. Finishing, their preparations, they went to their bed, and after getting in, they turned to each other, wrapped their arms around each other and enjoyed a soft kiss.

Breaking the kiss, Penny said, "Good night, Leonard. I love you."

"Night Penny, I love you, too."

* * *

 **Thanks to all those who read and enjoyed this. A special thanks to those who reviewed.**


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